The Painted Bird

With a running time of almost three hours and the ‘Making of… Featurette’ clocking in another two hours you may wish to watch this compelling and multi-award winning, yet ultimately harrowing epic in sections. Based on Jerzy Kosinski’s controversial novel, director Marhoul’s epic project took eleven years in the making - with young Petr Kotlár in the central part and a host of international stars in supporting roles.

Set in an unspecified part in Eastern Europe during WW2, young Jewish boy Joska (Petr Kotlár), holding his pet ferret, is chased by a bunch of yobs through the woods whre they beat him up while setting the animal on fire (although there are several acts of animal cruelty depicted throughout the film, no animal came to harm during filming). Following the incident, Joska’s well-meaning parents send their son to his aunt Marta (Nina Sunevic) who lives in a remote and therefore safer place. As Joska soon discovers, Marta is the village shaman who has her hands full getting rid of a deadly disease which bears all the hallmarks of plague. Cue for some bizarre rituals and magic spells. When Joska finds his aunt sitting on a kitchen chair, apparently asleep, he realises she is in fact dead. Frightened by the discovery the boy accidentally drops the oil lamp and minutes later both house and barn go up in flames. The following day Joska too falls ill with the disease and the superstitious villagers dispatch him on a cart, believing his presence brings bad luck. The unfortunate lad is buried up to his neck in a nearby field and left as fodder for the crows but is saved at the last minute. Thus begins his long journey during which he encounters many adults though hardly any of them are kindly disposed towards him.

First he’s taking in by the wife of an old miller (Udo Kier) where he finds himself ensnared in a jealous triangle between the pair and a male worker who has set his eyes on the woman. When the miller, in a fit of jealous rage, gouges out the eyes of his ‘rival’, Joska reckons it’s high time to leave the place and after wandering along in the countryside he comes across a bird breeder named Lekh (Lech Dyblik) who seems a friendly enough fella. One day Lekh paints the wings of a little bird with paint before setting it free just as a flock of the same birds fly by. Minutes later the painted bird drops dead on the ground: the other birds did not accept it due to it being different. This of course is a very symbolic scene because throughout his journey an increasing number of people don’t accept Joska for being different either, on account of his being Jewish. Although he gets on with Lekh disaster strikes again when it emerges that the young woman with whom the bird breeder regularly has sex seems a bit of a nymphomaniac and is brutally killed by the local village women when they thrust a broken glass bottle up her private parts. Upon realising what happened, Lekh hangs himself in his barn (yes, this is a real jolly film!) and Joska is on his way again.

Next, he comes across an injured horse and kindly takes it to the next village, only for one of the villagers to cruelly kill the animal. Once again the villagers reckon that the strange boy will only bring bad luck and hand him to the Germans who instruct one of their soldiers, Hans (Stellan Skarsgard) to take him to an isolated spot and execute him. Luckily for Joska, the soldier has pity and spares his life. Bad luck follows Joska at every turn and just when it looks like he’s had a lucky escape once again he’s picked up by the Germans, this time by SS guards who take him to the nearest town where he is saved from execution by degrading himself and licking clean an SS officers boot. Taken under the protective wing by a kindly priest (Harvey Keitel) who thinks he is doing the boy a favour by bringing him to farmer Garbos (Julian Sands) it turns out that Garbos is a sadist and paedophile who indulges in humiliating Joska until he meets his gruesome comeuppance – at the hands of Joska! ‘Free’ again, Joska’s odyssey continues and next up he is taken in by Labina (Julia Vidrnakova), a young farmer’s wife and yet another nymphomaniac who begins to sexually abuse the boy when her older husband dies. Unable to give into her carnal desires due to his young age and his youth, Labina opts for sodomy with a goat (yes, you read that correctly)! Feeling even more humiliated, Joska secretly kills the goat and chucks its severed head through Labina’s window before running away.
Only after fate brings him into contact with the invading Red Army does Joska’s life – at least temporarily – take a turn for the better when a sniper named Mitka (Barry Pepper) teaches him how to use a rifle - but Joska’s plight is far from over…

Admittedly, THE PAINTED BIRD is not an easy film to watch but it is an important one, with Petr Kotlár delivering an impressive performance given the fact he had no acting experience when director Marhoul discovered him.
As part of Eureka’s sub-label Montage Pictures, THE PAINTED BIRD is released on Blu-ray. Language is Slavic Esperanto, Czech, Russian and German with English subtitles. Bonus feature included the already mentioned ‘Making of Documentary: Colours of the Bird’ plus Collector’s booklet (1000 copies only).